Berkeley Astrophysics and Cosmology Institutehttp://events.berkeley.edu/index.php/calendar/sn/astro.html
Upcoming EventsGalaxy Evolution in the Resolved Universe, Mar 5http://events.berkeley.edu/index.php/calendar/sn/astro.html?event_ID=87542&date=2015-03-05
The Local Group (LG) is both a foundation and a frontier in our quest to understand the universe. Stellar evolution, the initial mass function (IMF), the extinction law, and the distance scale — all required for interpreting observations of distant galaxies — are anchored in the resolved stellar populations of our neighboring galaxies. These same observations also encode the fossil record of star formation, enabling a detailed reconstruction of the star formation histories (SFHs) of each LG galaxy across cosmic time. Such SFHs have proven particularly transformative for our understanding of the lowest-mass galaxies, which are thought to power cosmic reionization and may have properties at odds with predictions from CDM, but are undetectable in redshift surveys due to their intrinsic faintness. In this talk, I will present results from my ongoing efforts to systematically study galaxy evolution in local Universe and improve our knowledge of fundamental astrophysics (e.g., the IMF) using HST observations of hundreds of millions of resolved stars in the LG. I will highlight new insights into the early and late-time evolution of the lowest-mass galaxies and present a new measurement of the high-mass stellar IMF in M31 that is both steeper than Salpeter and more robust than any previous IMF determination. I will conclude by discussing the prospects for extending resolved stellar population studies to more distant galaxies using next-generation facilities (e.g., JWST, WFIRST) and describe powerful new ways of leveraging high-fidelity spectroscopic (e.g., Keck, TMT) and photometric observations of stars and star clusters for constraining the chemical evolution of the nearby universe across cosmic time and directly measuring the high-mass IMF in distant, star-forming galaxies.http://events.berkeley.edu/index.php/calendar/sn/astro.html?event_ID=87542&date=2015-03-05Scott Ransom (NRAO): The Ridiculous Challenges of Next-Generation Pulsar Surveys, Mar 9http://events.berkeley.edu/index.php/calendar/sn/astro.html?event_ID=85595&date=2015-03-09
In the last decade, large-scale surveys for new radio pulsars have made incredible progress, particularly in their ability to find important and exotic binary and millisecond pulsars. The reason for this progress has been Moore's Law, the same reason we are building fantastic next-generation radio facilities. These new facilities, though, especially the radio arrays, make pulsar searching incredibly difficult due to the huge data rates they generate. Dealing with data rates we cannot record demands new ways of thinking about and processing our pulsar search data. I'll discuss some of the ideas and algorithms we are planning on using to do these searches and hopefully find a bunch of exotic new pulsars.http://events.berkeley.edu/index.php/calendar/sn/astro.html?event_ID=85595&date=2015-03-09The Increasing Complexity of Exoplanet Atmospheres, Mar 19http://events.berkeley.edu/index.php/calendar/sn/astro.html?event_ID=88282&date=2015-03-19
While there are now many types of exoplanets that have been discovered, the "hot Jupiter" class remains a focus for observers and theorists alike. This partly because these are inherently interesting objects, completely unlike anything in our solar system, but also because these are the best targets for atmospheric characterization. The atmospheric properties of bright transiting planets are currently being probed by multiple instruments using impressive observational techniques; however, while the data are becoming more constraining, our theoretical picture of these planets is only becoming more complex. This is both because of the recognition of additional physical processes that must be accounted for the in the models, but also because of our increased appreciation of the inherent uncertainties in our models and their input parameters. I will discuss the development of 3D atmospheric models and review our current state of understanding. Based on current and future instrumental capabilities, I will then discuss some of the ways that we can hope to combine multiple types of observations in order to more confidently tease out the detailed physical properties of exoplanets.http://events.berkeley.edu/index.php/calendar/sn/astro.html?event_ID=88282&date=2015-03-19Exoplanet Surprises, Mar 21http://events.berkeley.edu/index.php/calendar/sn/astro.html?event_ID=88412&date=2015-03-21
Over the past of couple decades, thousands of extra-solar planets have been discovered orbiting other stars, and surveys have shown that planets orbiting other stars are very common. In this public lecture, Dr. Dawson will talk about the exoplanet discoveries that have surprised us most, what these discoveries have told us about how planetary systems form and evolve, and how our solar system fits into the landscape of planetary systems throughout our Milky Way galaxy.<br />
<br />
Dr. Rebekah Dawson is a Miller Fellow in the Astronomy Department at Berkeley. Her research focuses on the formation and evolution of planetary systems. She received her PhD from Harvard University.<br />
<br />
This free public talk is presented as part of the monthly “Science@Cal Lecture Series” - details at http://scienceatcal.berkeley.eduhttp://events.berkeley.edu/index.php/calendar/sn/astro.html?event_ID=88412&date=2015-03-21